Ok, let's see...I did a Moai for my sister for Christmas. She actually requested "something that you carve" when I asked her what she wanted - that made me feel good. He's just shy of three feet tall and eight inches in diameter. So here's that one:

And I just finished this one a few days ago. Also three feet tall and eight inches in diameter. It took the stain way different than the Moai. Same stain, same tree. Strange. I thought I'd do a step-by-step on how to do one of these:

Step 1, get a log:

Step 2, carve it into a tiki:

And while I was in Kauai, I got a souvenir. This is within about five minutes of completion:

That's about it for now. Starting on a new log. A buddy cut down a big ash tree in his back yard and gave me whatever I wanted, so I've got a bunch of it. That stuff is heavy. Starting with a two-footer to see how it carves - I've never tried it before. Anybody have any tips on carving ash? Seems pretty hard and it's drying really, really fast - hopefully I can get into it while it's still a little green.

Totally forgot the Aloha Fest was this weekend. Going to the Viva Phoenix music fest downtown on Friday night, but hopefully will make it to Aloha Fest, maybe Sunday.

I SOOO wanted to go deeper on that one, but I got it to that point and thought 'damn, that looks pretty good' and then I didn't want to mess it up by going deeper. Just couldn't make myself do it. This next ash one will likely be done with mostly my Lancelot and Holey Galahad due to the hardness of the wood, so I'll use power tools to work on my trepidation about going deep.

I wanted this one to kinda have the 'old' vibe, so I let it sit out and dry and crack. One of the cracks got a bit out of hand, but I don't think it'll go much, if any deeper. This'll be an indoor-only piece, so at least the sun won't bake it into a dozen pieces. About two feet tall and eight inches in diameter. The wood is ash. Ash is really hard, but not nearly as hard as the palo verde I've done. Anyway, here ya go...

Thanks! The moai has two coats of Minwax semi-gloss poly, and the other one is two coats of Minwax spar. I find that if I go to three coats on the poly, it can get to the "encased in plastic" looking stage, but sometimes two doesn't seem to be enough. You can never tell how those stupid palms are going to take finish.

This one was a bitch. With all the knots and twists and turns that the log did, it was definitely a major "you'll get what the wood gives you" project. I really like how it turned out though. He's about three feet tall including the schnoz, made of ash, stained minwax's golden pecan then three coats of poly...